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New Pa. budget lessens nursing home concerns, but doesn’t immediately quell possible strikes

Patriot-News - 6/26/2021

Pennsylvania’s nursing home industry and a union representing nursing home workers are pleased the new state budget contains more than $250 million toward nursing homes.

However, both say it’s a short-term boost, with more action needed to ensure a sufficiently large and adequately paid work force.

Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, said Pennsylvania lawmakers have approved a budget “that listens to caregivers and begins to address the long work ahead to rebuild and reform our health care system.”

The SEIU represents workers at about 110 of Pennsylvania’s 700 skilled nursing homes, including about a dozen where workers voted last week to authorize strikes over matters including pay and staffing levels.

However, an SEIU spokeswoman on Saturday morning said the budget agreement doesn’t immediately end the possibility of strikes at a dozen homes including the Garden at Blue Ridge near Harrisburg and Rose City Nursing and Rehabilitation in Lancaster County.

She said negotiations will continue with the aim of putting the new money toward staffing and wages, and “until that agreement is reached or workers feel they’re making progress, we’re still at the same place.”

The unionized workers at the 12 homes authorized their leaders to give ten-day strike notices; none so far have given such notice. The SEIU said notices would likely come around the beginning of July.

The union said the 12 bargaining units that authorized strikes all have contracts which are about to expire, and said additional strike authorization votes could come later in the year as more contracts expire.

Pennsylvania lawmakers reached a budget agreement on Friday night, several days ahead of the July 1 deadline.

READ MORE: Pennsylvania lawmakers pass $40.8 billion state budget; Gov. Tom Wolf says he’ll sign it

The SEIU’s Yarnell in a Saturday morning news release said $247 million from the federal American Rescue Plan will be spent on staffing and bedside care, calling it “an essential investment needed to move us from crisis to reform.”

Still, he said lawmakers “refused to take action to address our broader public health crisis and staffing levels.”

The nursing home industry also says it must raise wages in order to attract and retain a high-quality workforce.

Zach Shamberg, CEO of the the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, which represents for-profit long term care facilities, in a news called the budget agreement “a significant step toward sustaining Pennsylvania’s long-term care continuum in the months ahead. But the fight is far from over.”

Republican Kerry Benninghoff, the House Majority Leader, said the budget sends $282 in federal funds to nursing homes, which he said will “help with the purchase of personal protective equipment, testing and other pandemic-related costs.”

Pennsylvania has received $7.2 billion from the American Relief Act, which was proposed by the President Joe Biden administration and approved by Congress this year to offset wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pennsylvania Democrats are critical of state Republicans, who control the legislature, for spending only about a $1 billion of those finds — especially in light of the state’s separate budget surplus.

Democratic state Sen. Maria Collett said in a news release, “This budget fails to recognize that while it often makes sense to save for a rainy day, it is certainly not the best decision to squirrel away billions of dollars that are desperately and urgently needed to get our communities and citizens back on their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

©2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.